The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Bright chance for Indians

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Bright chance for Indians

Manuel Aaron

Vung Tau (Vietnam): At the halfway stage of the World Youth Chess Championships India has an excellent chance of winning several golds in the girls’ sections.

Diptayan Ghosh (U-10), Vidit Gujrathi (U-14) and Padmini Rout (U-14 girls) lead with 5.5 points with five more rounds to go. Arjun Bharat is one point behind Ghosh (U-10) and N. Srinath, former U-12 World Champion, is one point behind Vidit (U-14). In the U-14 girls, Mohana Priya is among the four girls who are just half a point behind Padmini Rout.

And a further half point behind lies Teenu Thomas.

The U-16 section offers good chance for Indians. With only five points each B. Adhiban, Debashis Das and Russia’s Gritsenko lead after six rounds.

Half a point behind these leaders is a group of eight players which includes the Tamil Nadu trio of K. Priyadarshan, S.P. Sethuraman and M. Shyam Sundar. In the Under-16 Girls section, three girls including the 2006 and 2007 World U-14 girl’s champions Klaudia Kulon (Pol) and Nazi Paikidze (Geo) are in joint lead. Just half a point behind in a group of five is Pon Krithika.

In the U-12 Girls, Saduakossava of Kazakhstan leads with 5.5 points. B. Pratyusha and Sonakshi Rathore are one point behind her. In the U-10 girls World U-8 girls champion, Ivana Furtado is languishing with 3.5 points, while China’s Li Zhuoling leads with 6/6.

However, four Indians — Sunyasakta Satpathy, M. Mahalakshmi, G.K. Monnisha and Shoumi Mukerjee —are on four points.

In the U-8 girls Bansi Pratima is in second place behind Gunay Mammadzada of Azerbaijan who has 6/6. In the boys U-8, Sabhareesh is one point behind the joint Chinese leaders Liu Xiangyi and Lia Yu Hao who are on 5.5.

Darwin Yang (US) leads the U-12 with 5.5 points. Sayantan Das (5) and Shiven Khosla (4.5) are close behind. In the U-18, P. Karthikeyan with 4.5 points is just half a point behind the three joint leaders.

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